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The time has come to plan season 3 of the podcast. These past two seasons, there hasn't really been much of an overarching theme. I tried going for a bit of "x vs y" theme in season 2, and season 1 was just all over the place. For season 3, my idea is to stick to the style of the past season with me droning on about "today's topic," followed by whatever amount of guest contributions have come in that week. But what should those topics be?

Our very own drdrslashvohaul had some good suggestions, such as ...

- Broader sci-fi/comedy tropes, and how Space Quest fits into those.

I like this one. It could feasibly be the theme of the entire season, actually, with each episode focusing on a different established trope and how it relates to Space Quest / SpaceVenture.

- Technology focus. Beaming, instant mail novelty items, cloning ...

This one also tickles my fancy -- bringing some of the more obscure tech-things into focus and trying to make sense of them. Even though I'm pretty sure most of them were just thought up on the spot. And it's not even clearly explained how most of these things work. But it'd be a good excuse to crowdsource some input from fans, e.g. "which doohickey was your favorite", etc.

And then, of course, I have my own desires for season 3.

- More Chuck Clusterbluck. (Kinda sad that Chuck only made one appearance in season 2. Tom has a truly grand epic plot arc planned.)

- More Pete Toleman. (Gotta keep Gareth occupied before he jumps ship and simply goes off and does his own Pete Toleman podcast.)

- More SteveBot. (Thinking of doing a plot arc for SteveBot.)

- More "Lucky Corner" with Alan Luckachina.

- Introducing CyberCedric. CyberCedric wants to bring the universe to its knees, but he's stuck in my room for some contrived reason, so now all he can do is make Borg-esque/Purple Tentacle-esque degrading comments about humanity and his own superiority. (I'd love to get the guy who actually voiced Cedric to do this, but, barring that, I'd need to find an impersonator. You can put your hand down now, Frederik!)

- Something to keep us musically occupied. We've already done SQ4 (season 1) and SQ3 (season 2). I'd love to get in touch with Tim Clarke and Chris Stevens, the dudes who did SQ5's music, but I have no idea how. That would also give me an excuse to pester Ken Allen into talking a bit more about the lost SQ5 soundtrack that he did.

- I'd love to hear more about the "behind the scenes" work of the artists, programmers and producers of the games themselves. People we haven't heard from yet. For instance, talking to SQ4CD's producer Dan Carver about the many changes between disk and CD (if he can remember why they did so).

Any more suggestions, or something or someone you would like to see-- well, hear about/from in season 3, please feel free to fire them my way!

As for when season 3 will rear its ugly head? I'm thinking March at the earliest. Might be April. I won't know until I've planned the season and got people on board, will I?

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From a completely selfish standpoint, as a coder myself, I'd love to hear more about behind-the-scenes programming stuff. I'm curious what the really hard parts about building the early Space Quest games were, and how those challenges changed as technology advanced. Culminating in, I suppose, a comparison with which parts of SpaceVenture are proving difficult and why. I know we've heard bits and pieces about this already in previous episodes, but hearing about the progression of programming over time would be fascinating.

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If you'll have me, I will be continuing my story on the Quest for the Two Guys from Andromeda, working up to the conclusion (approximately 6-7 chapters left in the story, so we'll see how things go down here!)

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If you'll have me, I will be continuing my story on the Quest for the Two Guys from Andromeda, working up to the conclusion (approximately 6-7 chapters left in the story, so we'll see how things go down here!)

Looking forward to season 3!!!!

Talk to you later!

JDHJANUS

Josh

Of course I'd love to have you continue your story, Josh. Pardon my omission of you in my original post; it was a terrible oversight on my part.

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It might get complicated quickly but a small segment every few podcasts about the "Science of Space Quest" could be interesting. It could be anything as cutting edge as universal translators, feasibility of shrinking machines, to green jello viscosity... Actually this is looking more like Mythbusters: Space Quest Edition

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I would suggest a discussion of Space Quest knockoffs (like Altered Destiny, Rex Nebular and Ivan Lozhkin: Price of Freedom), but I suspect that that ground has been covered already.

I've only played Rex Nebular of those three. And I don't believe there's an English translation of Ivan Lozhkin? But I do like the suggestion. One could even look back at Planetfall, which some people with evil in their hearts claim was ripped off by Space Quest.

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It might get complicated quickly but a small segment every few podcasts about the "Science of Space Quest" could be interesting. It could be anything as cutting edge as universal translators, feasibility of shrinking machines, to green jello viscosity... Actually this is looking more like Mythbusters: Space Quest Edition

Anyone have an image of Drool dressed like Jamie Hyneman?

I would need to ally myself with someone much smarter than myself to look at the science in any meaningful way. For Gareth's suggestion, I was merely planning on running down a few of the cool gadgets and ideas of the series and maybe see if there was anything resembling those inventions today. We wouldn't happen to have any bonafide scientists hanging around here?

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I've only played Rex Nebular of those three. And I don't believe there's an English translation of Ivan Lozhkin?

I think it's only available in Russian. This playthrough of it with an English commentary is fairly informative (I think it was posted here a few years ago), but if this game was covered, we'd probably just end up parroting a lot of whats said in this video.

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I think it's only available in Russian. This playthrough of it with an English commentary is fairly informative (I think it was posted here a few years ago), but if this game was covered, we'd probably just end up parroting a lot of whats said in this video.

Hmm, it's too bad there's not someone better doing an English LP of that game.

DOS Nostalgia has passion, but he's incredibly negative all the time. He says the game is bad or unfunny, and that really makes it hard to get a feel for the game through the thick cloud of his preconceptions. You end up with a better sense of his angst than you do of the game itself.

Hopefully another bilingual Russian speaker can do the game more justice someday.

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The video is good. He shows the game, and it's pretty obvious from the screens and the puzzles that it's a bit... let's be kind and say "naff".

I think asking for a 'better' is unfair, actually. A less overtly partial review might be useful (and something I'd also like) but that doesn't make the video itself "bad". Perhaps the game has been given exactly the justice it deserves.

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I guess we'll never know? All I know is that DOS Nostalgia also thinks the early Space Quests and the entire Sierra Discovery series are "bad," and he can't discuss them without painting his own (negative) emotions all over the dialogue.

Now I know that he's also "nostalgic" for these things and that's why he devotes his life to being a cranky online museum curator, but I've disagreed with him enough about everything under the sun to feel like there might be some goodness in something he hates.

He also thinks Doom is the best game ever made, while I've barely played Doom since 1994 and never made it far past the first level. Probably not my soulmate.

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I think Anatoly's opinion of Ivan Lohzin might well be fair. It's easy to be biased against something that is inherently a rip-off, but he also loves the first Duke Nukem (or "Nukum") game, and that game is infamous for lifting sprites and textures wholesale from other games. So, yeah, Ivan Lohzin could very well be that bad.

That said, I do know he kinda has his angry shtick, which is something that goes for most comedic reviewers on the 'net, I think. I can't quite decide whether I'm fond of that style or not.

Also, not having completed at least the shareware episode of Doom is what we call a "serious character flaw" around here

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I guess we'll never know? All I know is that DOS Nostalgia also thinks the early Space Quests and the entire Sierra Discovery series are "bad," and he can't discuss them without painting his own (negative) emotions all over the dialogue.

Fair enough, but I don't see that as a weakness. A review doesn't have to be emotionally neutral to be good or useful. Troels certainly isn't on the podcast, but that's one of the show's strengths.

I suppose my point is it's fair enough to not like his presenting style or to prefer (or want) a more neutral tone, but that I thought you were being a bit harsh on the quality of the video.

As someone elbow deep in a very emotive research topic about which I have to remain reasonably dispassionate, it's nice sometimes to see someone (with solid justification) rip into or gush over something once in a while.

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All I know is that DOS Nostalgia also thinks the early Space Quests and the entire Sierra Discovery series are "bad," and he can't discuss them without painting his own (negative) emotions all over the dialogue.

Actually, if you listen to the podcast I did with him (which I know you did), he says he really loves the Space Quest series, including the early ones. He just says that, from a modern gameplay perspective, they can be quite cruel and unfair -- which is true -- and that he has personal issues with the sometimes unforgiving design philosophy that Sierra employed.

That's not the same as hating the games. I know he doesn't, and I thought that was quite apparent when we did the show.

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Is there a hard date yet on the Season 3 Premier episode of The Space Quest Historian?

HCH

Sorry, not yet. I still haven't gotten quite a good grip on it, and Fred's keeping me pleasantly distracted with that other podcast of ours.

But season 3 is not dead, far from it.

I have some ideas, including putting more focus on the fan community, and actually start to do live content (as opposed to pre-recorded). I'd love to spotlight a fan or someone who was involved with the games, and have them tell their story. Instead of having them mail me a voice file, I would actually get on Hangout or Skype with them and chat for half an hour, then cut out the bits that were interesting and use that on the show.

I'd also still like to do a story arc involving SteveBot, but I haven't figured one out yet. Likewise, I'd like to continue the Musical Interlude segment and I was itching to have the gents Clarke/Stevens from Dynamix talk about their SQ5 soundtrack. But I haven't been able to get a hold of them. Another idea would be to ask interview guests what tune from Space Quest they'd like to hear, and why, and have that be the Musical Interlude.

- Musical stuff: I talked for two hours with James Mulvale, Brandon Blume and Ken Allen, and I've cut that chat into 10 scintillating parts. And, SPOILER, I actually DID get in touch with Tim Clarke (ex-Dynamix composer of SQ5 soundtrack) -- thanks, Ken! -- but I haven't had the chance to interview him yet.

- More Pete Toleman: Pete now recounts his early days. Featuring our very own Joe Cassara as Pete's "announcer."

Things I did not get to include:

- More Chuck Clusterbluck. Tom King (who played Chuck) seems to be very busy these days, so I haven't written him in. If he gets in touch with me during the season, I'll be happy to include him, but it's not planned.

- More Lucky Corner. Alan Luckachina was on board, but had to bow out at the last second due to other commitments.

Anyway, hope you guys like it. It's not as Space Quest-centric as the previous seasons, but I figured it was time to branch out and do more stuff. I'd love to hear what you guys think of the "new" format (which is very much like the old format, just with less pre-recorded stuff and more interview-y stuff).